On October 7, Prime Minister Narendra Modi completed 20 years in public office. To mark the occasion, Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, praised his governance model, and called PM Modi the “most democratic leader” the country has seen.
During an interview to Sansad TV, Shah said, “Nobody else could have taken the decision of demonetisation other than our PM. Everyone spoke about GST, but Modi ji has taken that political risk. Nobody even thought about surgical and air strikes, but today everyone knows that India will not tolerate mischief at its border. We all knew that Article 370 was temporary but nobody dared to remove it.”
In praise of Narendra Modi, the Home Minister also said that the former’s aim is “India first” and not to continue in power or to run the country through the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). “He has no personal greed, he only thinks about people’s interests and that’s why the citizens have faith in him,” said Amit Shah.
He added, “Only after suggestions and recommendations, he takes final decisions on issues”. He said that the union cabinet members will also agree that they have never functioned in such a democratic manner as it is now under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi.
On being asked that Narendra Modi has a perception of believing in “dictatorship” and taking decisions like one, Amit Shah said, “I am fortunate that I have gotten the opportunity to work with Modi ji. These allegations of him being a dictator are baseless. He is a patient listener; he considers suggestions given by all. He gives importance to all recommendations, irrespective of who it comes from.”
However, this interview did not fit well with netizens on the giant social media platform, Twitter. Martina Navratilova, the American tennis legend tweeted, “And for my next joke….”, with astonishment and clown emoticons.
And for my next joke …?? https://t.co/vR7i5etQcv
— Martina Navratilova (@Martina) October 10, 2021
This is not the first time that Navratilova has criticised the Indian Government. Back in February 2016, she had shared an article by New York Times written by journalist Nilanjana Roy on sedition in India. The article pulled up the central government for their actions related to the JNU case where students were arrested and booked under sedition for allegedly organising a protest on their campus against the Indian Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru’s hanging.
Her tweet had said, “What Passes for Sedition in India, -ultra nationalism easily turns into violence at worst, bullying at best.”
Reacting to Navratilova’s recent tweet, journalist and filmmaker Vinod Kapri posted, “One more Grand Slam”. Many twitter users called Amit Shah’s claims the “Joke of the year”. Congress member Andrea alias Ria D’ Souza also called it “joke of the day”.
Its the best joke of the day..@AmitShah https://t.co/bXn4h8QwFD
— Ria (@RiaRevealed) October 10, 2021
Journalist Stuti Mishra also reacted to the news and said, “Ask him (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) a follow up question and we will know how much democracy we have”.
Ask him a follow up question and we will know how much democracy we have https://t.co/XBxD4Cf2hL
— Stuti (@StutiNMishra) October 10, 2021
Related:
Seven Years of Narendra Modi in power
This government has all but actually declared a war on its own people: Teesta Setalvad